Pakistan is scheduled to get 18 of the Block 52 F-16 fighter aircraft and Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate from the US by fall, and is expected to receive Shadow Drones within a year, a Pentagon official has said. Islamabad is set to receive all this military help under the enhanced US-Pakistan strategic cooperation. "I would like to think that we would get them (Pakistan) within the year," the official said on Tuesday. "Shadow (drone) is one of the things that they had asked for, and as we expanded and talked about other UAV platforms to be able to use...

Taiwan plans to buy eight second-hand Perry-class frigates from the United States despite improved ties with once-bitter foe China, a local newspaper reported Monday. The island hopes to arm them with a version of the advanced Aegis Combat System, which uses computers and radar to take out multiple targets, as well as sophisticated missile launch technology, the Taipei-based China Times said. The defence ministry said in a reaction to the report that ageing frigates now serving the navy needed to be phased out, but that it had not yet decided on the type of vessels that would replace them. "The...